The word Oregon first appeared in print as the name of a great river flowing westward from the Great Lakes into the Pacific in Jonathan Carver's Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768 (1778). The word's origin is uncertain. It may have been a misreading of the word Ouisconsin on an early map or it may derive from the word ooligan, an Indian word for the smelt, a fish widely traded in the western parts of North America.
Originally much larger than the state of Oregon, Oregon Country ran from the present-day Oregon-California border to today's Alaska-Canada border and ran westward from the crest of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.
Oregon Indians
Humans have lived in this region for at least 14,000 years. The first people probably came by a land bridge from Siberia over to Alaska, and then filtered southward to the Pacific Northwest. Over time, they separated into three major cultural groupings. Along the coast of modern Oregon lived Salishan, Penutian, and Athapaskan speakers. In the plateau region of central and eastern Oregon were Sahaptian speakers. In the southeast were the Northern Paiutes. Although Oregon Indians were divided by area and language, they shared certain characteristics. All of them hunted, foraged, fished, and traded; and, unusual for North American Indians, they did not practice agriculture. Salmon was the staple food for most Oregon Indians. It was also an important article of trade, the basis for an important religious ceremony, and served as a motif in their art. The Indians' religion was animism, a belief that natural beings or objects have supernatural spirits. Political and social life was based upon village-clan groups rather than on tribes.
Maritime Explorers
The first white explorers came to Oregon by sea. Spain sent the first documented explorer, Juan Cabrillo, in 1542. After Cabrillo's death, his second in command, Bartolomé Ferrelo, reached the southwestern coast in 1543 looking for a passageway between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the Northwest Passage. The Englishman Francis Drake may have seen the Oregon coast just north of the forty-second parallel in 1579. After another Spanish expedition in 1603 that reached perhaps as far north as forty-three degrees, maritime exploration ended for over 170 years.
It resumed in 1774 when Spain sent Juan Pérez to forestall an anticipated Russian advance into the Oregon Country from their base in Alaska. In 1775, Bruno de Heceta discovered what would later be named the Columbia River, though he did not enter it. In 1776, the British government sent James Cook to the Northwest to search for the Northwest Passage and to claim the land for Great Britain. Cook reached Oregon, but like his predecessors, he did not land. After Cook's death in Hawaii, his men reached China and discovered a profitable market for the sea otter furs they had acquired from the Indians of Vancouver Island. News of this sent the first British businessman, James Hanna, to Oregon in 1785 to trade for furs with the Indians.
The Fur Trade and Lewis and Clark
The first American citizen to reach Oregon was a fur trader, Robert Gray, whose ship arrived in 1788. Gray returned in 1792 and on 12 May entered the Columbia River, which he named for his ship. A short time later, a British naval officer, George Vancouver, entered the Columbia River and sent a party, commanded by William Broughton, approximately 120 miles upriver, that helped establish a British claim to the Oregon Country. In 1793, Alexander Mackenzie, a fur trader for the North West Company, reached the Pacific at the mouth of the Bella Coola River in modern British Columbia, initiating over-land exploration to the Northwest Coast. In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to lead the first American overland expedition. The objectives of this expedition were to find the best route between the waters of the Columbia and Missouri Rivers for the purpose of the fur trade; to inventory the flora and fauna; to make commercial arrangements with the Indians; and to strengthen the American claim to Oregon first established by Robert Gray. On 16 October 1805, the expedition first entered the Oregon Country at the junction of the Snake and Columbia rivers. They spent from 25 December 1805 to 23 March 1806 at Fort Clatsop, near present-day Seaside, Oregon.
After the Lewis and Clark expedition, fur traders came to the region. In 1805, the Canadian North West Company established a post in what is now British Columbia. John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company, the first American inland fur trading company, established its headquarters at Fort Astoria in 1811 at the mouth of the Columbia River.
The Question of Sovereignty
By the early nineteenth century, ownership of the Oregon Country was disputed among Spain, Britain, Russia, and the United States. In 1818, Britain and the United States made a joint occupation agreement that postponed the question of sovereignty, but allowed each country to govern its own citizens. (At this time there were no American citizens living in Oregon.) Spain relinquished its claims to Oregon in 1819; and Russia gave up its claims to the area to the United States and Britain, respectively, in 1824 and 1825. In 1827, the joint occupation treaty was renewed.
The Missionaries
American missionaries arrived in the region in the 1830s. Methodist missionaries, under the leadership of Jason Lee, arrived in 1834 to Christianize and civilize the Indians of the Willamette Valley. They settled near today's Salem, Oregon, and moved the mission headquarters there in 1841. By the 1830s, however, the Indians in the Willamette Valley had been decimated by disease and their numbers were greatly reduced. In 1836, Dr. Marcus Whitman led a party sent by the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Dutch Reformed churches to the Oregon country. It included Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding, the first white women to settle in Oregon. Their first mission stations were at Lapwai, in present-day Idaho, and Waiilatpu, near present-day Walla Walla, Washington. In 1837, Cayuse Indians destroyed the Whitman mission. In 1838, the Roman Catholics sent their first missionaries, Modeste Demers and Francis Blanchet, who set up their initial stations on the Cowlitz River in present-day Washington State and at St. Paulnear the Willamette River in Oregon.
The Pioneer Generation
Fur traders and missionaries publicized Oregon to the American public. In the early 1840s, large numbers of pioneers began to come over the Oregon Trail to the Willamette Valley. Most of them came from the farms of the Middle West. They left home to escape harsh weather and frequent sickness, to flee the national depression that began in 1837, or simply for the sake of adventure. Most came, though, for a better material life on the rich soils of the Willamette Valley. A minority of Oregon emigrants of the pre-Civil War era were young businessmen who came from Northeastern cities to pursue mercantile careers in the urban areas of Oregon. Chinese immigrants began to come to the southern Oregon gold fields in the 1850s, and there were a few African Americans in Oregon before the Civil War.
The presence of these new settlers was a factor in the making of the Oregon Treaty of 1846, which was negotiated by President James K. Polk. This agreement divided the Oregon Country at the forty-ninth parallel, with Great Britain obtaining the land to the north. In local government, the American settlers comprised the principal group creating the Provisional Government of 1843, which guaranteed squatters' land claims, and law and order, until the Treaty of 1846 decided the sovereignty question. In 1848, Congress created the Territory of Oregon. Joseph Lane was its first governor. In 1853, the Territory of Washington was split off from Oregon. On 14 February 1859, Oregon became the thirty-third state. The provisions of its constitution, such as the separation of powers, were similar to those of the Midwestern states.
Before the Civil War, Oregon's political life was largely based upon local issues. The Democrats were the majority party, but Whigs and Republicans also had many supporters. The major national issue was whether slavery should extend to the federal territories. In the presidential election of 1860, Oregonians favored the Republican Abraham Lincoln who opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories. When the Civil War came, there were no battles in Oregon and few Oregonians fought in the eastern theaters.
During the pioneer era, most Oregonians were farmers. Some towns sprang up and one major city, Portland. Oregonians exported Wheat, cattle, and lumber to California in return for gold. In cultural life, churches, schools, and colleges were begun. Indian wars broke out in the 1850s when gold miners going to Southern Oregon caused the Rogue River War (1855–1856). In other parts of Oregon, white farmers encroached on Indian lands resulting in the Indians being placed on reservations. In 1855, the Warm Springs Reservation was created in Central Oregon for the Wasco, Walla Walla, and later the Paiutes.
Economics and Politics
In the 1880s, Oregon became more integrated into the national economy with the arrival of the Northern Pacific and Union Pacific transcontinental railroads. Some local industry developed, but wheat and lumber were the basis of the economy. Wheat farmers benefited from the reduction in transportation costs the railroad brought, as well as from mechanization and cheap land. Lumber exports also gained from low railroad rates, from mechanical inventions such as double circular saws, and from building booms in California, on the East Coast, and overseas. Cattlemen ran their stock on the open ranges of eastern Oregon and sheepherders competed with them for this pasturage. The salmon canning industry began on the Columbia River in 1867. By the beginning of the twentieth century, its effects were felt in reduced salmon runs.
After the Civil War, the Democrat and Republican parties as well as a few third parties grappled with several issues. The most important issue was the regulation of the railroads, especially the Southern Pacific Railroad. Critics of the railroads charged that rates were too high and service inadequate. This worked to corrupt the political system, as legislators were bribed. The first political opponent of the railroads was the Oregon State Grange, organized in 1873. It worked for railroad regulation with little success, except for the creation of a railroad commission in 1887 that had investigative but not regulatory powers.
Abigail Scott Duniway led the fight for woman's suffrage. In 1871, she began a newspaper in Portland called The New Northwest. Duniway also worked for a woman's suffrage constitutional amendment. Although the amendment was defeated in 1874, Duniway persevered and the amendment was passed in 1912.
In the late nineteenth century, Oregon's population became more ethnically diverse. The African American population rose as the railroads created economic opportunities for black migrants. They worked in the car shops, roundhouses, and yards in Portland, Roseburg, and La Grande. They also worked as Pullman and dining car employees and as teamsters and porters around the railroad stations. Chinese immigrants worked as farm laborers, salmon canners, construction workers, and domestic servants. Japanese immigrants were employed as farmers, truck gardeners, and railroad tracklayers. Asian immigrants, both Chinese and Japanese, were victims of widespread discrimination. In contrast to Asians and blacks, immigrants from Great Britain, Germany, and the Nordic lands were welcomed and assimilated easily.
Industry in the Twentieth Century
In the twentieth century, agriculture, lumber, cattle, sheep, and fishing were the most productive sectors of the economy until the rise of the technology and tourist industries. The first attempt to attract tourists was the Columbia River Scenic Highway built from 1913 to 1922. In the 1940s, technology companies such as Electro Scientific Industries and Tektronix were founded in Portland. In later years, other homegrown technology companies were started, and imports from other states, such as Intel and Hewlett-Packard, and from other nations, such as Epson and Fujitsu, established themselves in Oregon.
The Progressive Movement and After
Oregon's politics in the past century went through progressive and conservative phases. William S. U'Ren led the Progressive movement. It was caused by a variety of discontents: farmers and businessmen still concerned about the monopolistic power of the railroad; industrial workers desiring improved wages, hours, and working conditions; citizens frustrated with corruption in state and municipal politics; and those fearful of the social problems of growing urban areas. Progressivism was not based on a third party, but had both Democrat and Republican supporters, who effected many changes. In 1902, Oregon adopted the initiative and referendum. Other reforms followed: the direct primary (1904), the recall (1908), the presidential preference primary (1910), and woman's suffrage (1912). Progressives also passed social and economic legislation, including a ten-hour day for women in factories and laundries (1903) upheld by the Supreme Court in Muller vs. Oregon (1908). Taxes were raised on public utilities and public carriers (1906), an eight-hour day was adopted for public works projects (1912), and an eight-hour day was set for women workers in certain occupations (1914). In 1903, Oregon obtained a child labor law and a state board of health. A workman's compensation law was established in 1913; prohibition was enacted in 1914; and Oregon passed the nation's first gasoline tax in 1919.
The most contentious political development in the 1920s was the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. The group helped enact an initiative requiring parents to send their children to public rather than private or parochial schools. Passed in 1922, the law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1925. Soon after this decision, the Klan faded away. The majority of Oregonians voted for Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, 1936, and 1940, but they elected conservative or moderate, mainly Republican, governors, state legislators, congressmen, and senators.
Environmental Legislation
After the close of World War II, Oregon became a two-party state. In the 1960s, it captured national attention with a series of environmental laws: the Willamette River Park System Act (1967) and the Willamette Greenway Act (1973), a revision of its predecessor. An unprecedented system of statewide land use was enacted (1969, 1973). In 1970, the Oregon Scenic Water Ways Act was passed, as was an act in 1975 that banned the use of fluorocarbons in aerosol spray cans. During the 1980s and 1990s, Oregon politics became more conservative as voters became less willing to spend tax dollars. In 1990, Ballot Measure 5, a property tax limitation, was adopted as a constitutional amendment, which had the effect of crippling state services, such as higher education. Oregon's governors from the late 1980s to the early 2000s were all Democrats: Neil Goldschmidt (1987–1991), Barbara Roberts (1991–1995), and John Kitzhaber (1995–2003), but they accomplished little because of Republican strength in the state legislature. On the national level, Senator Bob Packwood (1969–1995) was a proponent of tax simplification, while Senator Mark O. Hatfield (1967–1996) was best known for championing a noninterventionist foreign policy in Vietnam and opposing a federal constitutional amendment to balance the national budget. Senator Wayne Morse (1945–1969) was an advocate for organized labor and an early opponent of the Vietnam War.
A More Diverse Population
Oregon's population became more diverse in the twentieth century. Many immigrants came from southern, eastern, and central Europe. Japanese immigrants suffered from the prejudice of white Oregonians, and were placed in internment camps during the Second World War. At the conclusion of the war, some returned to Oregon.
Native Americans were affected by changes in national policy. The Wheeler-Howard Act in 1934 permitted Indians to reorganize into tribes, but the Termination Policy in 1953 then broke up many of the remaining tribes. Beginning in the 1980s, some Native Americans obtained tribal recognition again. The African American presence increased greatly during World War II, when many blacks came to Oregon to work in the shipyards. They built upon existing community institutions and gained their first member of the state legislature in 1973 and their first statewide office holder in 1993. Oregon's Hispanic population also grew. For much of the century Hispanics worked as migratory farm workers, but by the end of the century most had settled into permanent residences in towns and cities. In the 2000 census 86.6% of Oregonians were white, 8% Hispanic, 3% Asian, 1.6% African American, and 1.3% American Indian.
Late Twentieth-Century Cultural Developments
In cultural life, support of public libraries and bookstores was above the national average, and Oregonians gained distinction in literature. Don Berry published a trilogy of historical novels about the pioneer era including Trask (1960), Moontrap (1962), and To Build a Ship(1963), while Ken Kesey received acclaim for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) and Sometimes A Great Notion (1964); both were made into motion pictures. Ursula Le Guin was one of the world's most distinguished authors of science fantasy. Craig Lesley's works included Winterkill (1984) and River Song (1989) and Molly Gloss wrote The Jump-Off Creek (1989) and Wild Life (2000). In architecture, Pietro Belluschi founded the Northwest Style, which uses regional materials to construct churches and residences that fit their natural surroundings.
Bibliography
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Clark, Malcolm, Jr. Eden Seekers: The Settlement of Oregon, 1818– 1862. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1981.
Dodds, Gordon B. Oregon: A Bicentennial History. New York: W.W. Norton, 1977.
———. The American Northwest: A History of Oregon and Washington. Arlington Heights, Ill.: Forum Press, 1986.
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MacColl, E. Kimbark. Merchants, Money and Power: The Portland Establishment, 1843–1913. Portland, Ore.: The Georgian Press, 1988.
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Merk, Frederick. The Oregon Question: Essays in Anglo-American Diplomacy and Politics. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967.
Morison, Dorothy Nafus. Outpost: John McLoughlin and the Far Northwest. Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1999.
Robbins, William G. Landscapes of Promise: The Oregon Story, 1800–1940. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997.
Walth, Brent. Fire at Eden's Gate: Tom McCall & The Oregon Story. Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1994.
